Related Press [16]
Union Seeks Ban on ‘Surveillance Pricing’ at Grocery Stores
As grocery stories roll out electronic shelf labels, AI Now's Dr. Katie Wells comments on the lack of transparency and accountability around whether retailers use algorithmic pricing practices.
Civil Eats
May 19, 2026
Down With the AI Overlords—With Sarah Myers West
AI Now's Sarah Myers West joins the Fighting Fascism podcast to discuss how AI is concentrating power among a handful of oligarchs—and how its future could be made more democratic.
The Nation
May 12, 2026
Musk v Altman and the ‘manifest destiny’ of AI
Billionaire tech CEOs like to claim that they're the only ones we can trust to be in charge of AI and its impacts on the world. “It reminds me of manifest-destiny language,” said Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of AI Now,
Reuters
May 6, 2026
Why AI companies want you to be afraid of them
When Anthropic touted the capabilities of its new model, Mythos, some criticized their fear-based marketing while others doubted the claims. AI Now's Heidy Khlaaf says we need more transparency in order to substantiate what Anthropic's says: "I think there are a lot of cracks in this narrative that Mythos is all powerful, we can't release it."
BBC
Apr 29, 2026
‘Too powerful for the public’: inside Anthropic’s bid to win the AI publicity war
“Mythos is a strategic announcement to show that they’re open for business,” said Dr. Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at AI Now, saying Anthropic’s release limitation prevented independent experts from evaluating the company’s claims.
The Guardian
Apr 12, 2026
AI companies know they have an image problem. Will funding policy papers and thinktanks dig them out?
“The OpenAI paper has a lot of the sounds of wanting more regulatory oversight,” said Sarah Myers West, co-executive director at AI Now. “But then when you look under the hood, they have lobbied very successfully for an administration that has taken a very aggressive deregulatory stance toward AI.”
The Guardian
Apr 12, 2026
AI Giants Go on Charm Offensive to Avert Public Backlash
But broad skepticism and fear about the impact of AI have made opposing all regulation untenable for tech company CEOs, said Kak, who is co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which has advocated for AI regulation. If they can’t oppose every policy, “What’s the next best move?” she asked. “It’s to place yourself in the driver’s seat, and that is what every single one of them is doing.”
The Wall Street Journal
Apr 7, 2026
Trump AI plan rips the brakes out of the car and gives Big Tech exactly what it wanted
Kate Brennan, associate director of the AI Now Institute, called the whole plan a gift for the big tech companies that will build these datacenters. "Big Tech got exactly what it wanted in this action plan, and we're poised to see an acceleration that is built on deregulatory principles and very little consideration for the public at large," she warned.
The Register
Jul 24, 2025
Trump’s ‘AI Action Plan’ to mix tech industry wishlist with culture war attacks on ‘woke AI’
Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump’s plan to come “straight from Big Tech’s mouth.”
Fortune
Jul 23, 2025
Why the AI moratorium’s defeat may signal a new political era
The moratorium fight may have signaled a bigger political shift. “In the last few months, we’ve seen a much broader and more diverse coalition form in support of AI regulation generally,” says Amba Kak, co–executive director of the AI Now Institute. After years of relative inaction, politicians are getting concerned about the risks of unregulated artificial intelligence.
MIT Technology Review
Jul 9, 2025
What Open AI Doesn’t Want You to Know
AI companies are spending millions to get the laws they want. They're not trying to cure cancer, or save America. These companies want to make $100 billion overnight, and they're willing to sponsor dangerous laws to make it happen.
More Perfect Union
Jul 2, 2025
Senators Came to Their Senses on AI Regulation Ban
“If there’s one lesson from the last decade of social media,” Kak added, “it’s that it’s difficult, maybe even impossible, to catch up with this tech sector once business models and practices have already been entrenched.”
Bloomberg
Jul 1, 2025
The GOP bill that would unleash AI is getting closer to passing. AI Now’s Amba Kak says the plan keeps getting worse.
A wide swath of groups and lawmakers from across the political spectrum have raised alarms about the proposal to ban state-level regulations of AI for the next five years.
Hard Reset
Jul 1, 2025
California seeks new guardrails on automated AI systems
In California, the state Senate has voted in favor of a so-called AI Bill of Rights, which would establish new guardrails around automated decision systems (ADS). To learn more about them, Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Kate Brennan, associate director of the think tank AI Now Institute.
Marketplace
Jun 23, 2025
‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ could block AI regulations for 10 years, leaving its harms unchecked
"I can imagine that for lawmakers, Republican or Democrat, whose districts rely on BEAD funding for broadband access to their rural communities, it's really a strange bargain," Kak said.
PolitiFact
Jun 17, 2025
The Storm Clouds Looming Past the State Moratorium: Weak Regulation is as Bad as None
We must remain vigilant against a scenario that’s as harmful as no regulation itself: weak regulation that serves to legitimize the AI industry’s behavior and continue business as usual. A federal law that imposes baseline transparency disclosures and then restricts states’ ability to impose additional—or stricter—requirements could place us on a dangerous trajectory of inaction.
Tech Policy Press
Jun 11, 2025